At a vigil for murdered police officers on Friday, national police commissioner Riah Phiyega, according to the Sunday Times, said that the violence against police was abnormal. No effort should be spared in stopping the killing of policemen.But everyone deserves similar consideration.Contrary to what Phiyega says, the level of violence against the police is not abnormal, and there are many areas in South Africa in which the murder rate of civilians is higher than that of the police.Khayelitsha, for example, is one of the top 20 murder-risk areas in the country, with an average murder rate of 110 per 100000.In the financial year 2013-2014, 68 of our 140000 police officers were murdered. That's 49 per 100000, half that of the 20 murder hot spots.The murder rate for all South Africans is 32 per 100000 - about two-thirds that of the police. But the national average counts children, old people and women, all of whom face lower risks of murder. The Medical Research Council says the murder rate for men aged 15-30, on the other hand, is 185 per 100000.Thus, the murder rate of police officers, many of whom are male and relatively young, is much lower than the average for young men in general. If you plucked 140000 young men out of the population at random, you'd expect 260 of them to be murdered within 12 months.So we should be horrified not just at the rate at which policemen are killed, but at the fact that this is the everyday reality for South Africa: far too many people die violently.The Institute for Security Studies has recommended that efforts to reduce murder rates be focused on the top murder risk areas.It is ironic that, while Phiyega is concerned about police killings, she has slammed the Khayelitsha commission of inquiry into policing Cape Town's largest township. She has said the commission should not have happened and has dismissed its findings as biased. She should, instead, welcome all efforts and recommendations on improving policing...